03 June 2008

A Japanese parliamentary group submits a Letter of Request urging the government to take lead in solving "Problems without passports"

by Takahiro Katsumi, PGISL Secretariat

(Tokyo, 3 June 2008) In the early Tuesday morning, a delegation from the non-partisan group of parliamentarians including Senator Tadashi Inuzuka (DPJ) that seek for the establishment of international solidarity levy, paid a formal visit to Minister of Foreign Affairs MasahikoKOHMURA to submit a formal Letter of Request to the government to join the Leading Group on Solidarity Levies for Development. (*1)

The delegation of the the Parliamentary Group on International Solidarity Levies (PGISL) emphasized in the request that the Leading Group is serving as "breeding grounds for innovative and effective ideas" and that Japan as the host of the upcoming G8 Toyako Summit should consider global issues such as climate change, poverty, and epidemics as "problems without passports" and that Japan should lead the world in providing "solution without borders". The request thus concluded by urging the government to join the Leading Group which is acting as an effective forum to develop new ideas addressing these "problems without passports".

Background

PGISL is a non-partisan, all-party parliamentary group consisted of approximately 40 original members from both houses of the parliament (the National Diet). It was established in Feburary 28 of this year, which holds the following as its objectives to be achieved before the opening of the Toyako Summit:

Push the Japanese government towards participation in the “Leading Group on Solidarity Levies for Development” (LGS).

Push the Japanese government to take the role of a lead nation for the “CTDL taskforce” (*2) which was proposed by the LGS.

Accordingly, PGISL until today has hosted more than five study sessions since its establishment, in a period of three month. For the study session the Group invited experts from in and out of Japan, such as Dr. Sony Kapoor from his newly established think tank "DEFINE", Professor Takehiko UEMURA from the Chiba University, and Mr. Kenzo OSHIMA, former UN Ambassador and now Deputy Director of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). PGISL has also sent its staff to the Leading Group Plenary Meeting held in Dakar on April to monitor and better understand the dynamics and reality of the Group. In particular, the PGISL has recognized the growing international acceptance towards CTDL(*3) and its effectiveness, hence promoting Japan's participation in the Leading Group to lead the Taskforce on CTDL.

The formal request to join the Leading Group signifies the very first step in rearing Japan to lead the CTDL Taskforce, which is our Group's primary objective.